Conquer Chemical Chaos: Empowering Product Managers with Master Data Management

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Product managers play a vital role in chemical and ingredient companies, touching almost all aspects of business. They are the driving force behind product development and need to understand regulatory compliance, supply chain management and market development in global chemical companies. They also work closely with research and development teams to explore new markets and applications for their products.

Master Data Management Challenges Product Managers Face

Product managers in global chemical and ingredient companies grapple with many challenges. These include:

• Inconsistent Product Data
• Regulatory Hurdles
• Supply Chain Issues
• Limited Market Insights

At the root of these problems is the need to access their own data. Data silos and complex organizational structures resulting from mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can make it extremely challenging to locate specific product data. 

Data Silos Following M&A Activities

Mergers and acquisitions often lead to data silos because of the large number of integration tasks and the speed at which they must be completed. A single business unit or product technology could have thousands of product-related documents scattered across individual associate hard drives, paper documents in filing cabinets or PDFs in team servers. It’s easy to skip transitioning these assets to a centralized repository during integration. Product managers may not even know who to contact to find product documentation.

Relying on a Toller or Contract Manufacturer to Maintain Product Data

Product managers may lose visibility into product documentation when production has been outsourced to a toller or contract manufacturer. Companies may deprioritize product data maintenance specifically around process and composition information. However, when a contract or tolling arrangement ends, there may be no one keeping track of the documents.

Inconsistent Product Data

Inconsistent product data is the primary issue underlying the other pain points that product managers encounter. This inconsistency may arise due to different formats and naming conventions across regions for the same product, which can result from variations in intellectual property laws or human error. Maintaining a comprehensive view of product information is particularly challenging in matrixed organizations, as the information may be scattered across individual hard drives, team databases and business unit file-sharing systems, leading to errors.

Regulatory Compliance Challenges

Inconsistent product information also leads to regulatory challenges, making it difficult for regulatory teams to maintain compliance across different regions.

Supply Chain Headaches

Inaccurate, duplicate or incomplete product information leads to inventory issues and inability to leverage economies of scale. Lack of knowledge across the organization of who is buying from which suppliers is one of the ways this shows up. Poor data visibility can cause delays and disruptions throughout the supply chain, making tracking and managing inventory challenging. These struggles underscore the urgent need to address data management and communication challenges within the supply chain to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Limited Market Insights

Companies need more market insights. Inconsistent data hinders their ability to conduct practical market analysis and customer segmentation. Tailoring product offerings to specific regional needs is challenging, leading to missed growth opportunities due to a lack of data-driven insights. This problem leads companies to explore ways to improve data collection and analysis to enhance their market understanding and drive business growth.

How Knowde Addresses Product Management Pain Points

Knowde MDM addresses product management pain points in four ways: 

1. Centralized product information
2. Regulatory compliance management
3. Enhanced supply chain efficiency
4. Data-driven market insights

Centralized Product Information

Knowde MDM establishes a single source of truth for all product data. During the onboarding process, Knowde’s AI Knowledge Engine standardizes formats and creates consistent naming conventions. This data harmonization ensures easy access to accurate and up-to-date product information by matching data with a standardized product taxonomy validated across 8,000+ supplier and distributor catalogs.

Regulatory Compliance Management

Knowde streamlines the process of updating product data for different regulations, reducing the risk of non-compliance by ensuring accurate and consistent data. The solution also provides audit trails for regulatory requirements.

Enhanced Supply Chain Efficiency

Improved data visibility facilitates better inventory management and forecasting, streamlining supply chain operations to minimize storage costs and optimize shipping routes. Data sharing also streamlines collaboration with suppliers and distributors, reducing delays and disruptions caused by inaccurate product information.

Data-Driven Market Insights

Knowde provides a consolidated view of product data across regions, enabling product managers to gain deeper market insights and customer trends. This consolidated view supports data-driven decision-making for product development and marketing strategies.

Benefits of Using Knowde MDM for Global Chemical Companies

Knowde MDM boosts efficiency and productivity, allowing product managers to focus on strategic planning activities by reducing the time spent on searching for data and chasing product data updates. Enhanced supply chain visibility and collaboration facilitate quicker and easier product allocation, especially during high-demand periods. Knowde MDM also reduces costs associated with data errors and inconsistencies and enables faster time-to-market for new products. Overall, data-driven insights lay the groundwork for better decision-making.

Are you ready to tame your data chaos? Learn more about Knowde’s Master Data Management and Data Platform.